Less Commonly Taught Languages Research Articles

Thai Undergraduates’ Motivation in Learning Different Foreign Languages: A Dörnyei’s L2MSS Perspective

Dörnyei’s (2005) research radiates positivity, emphasizing the crucial role of motivation in language learning beyond traditional methods. The study investigated 261 undergraduate students in Thailand studying languages other than English (LOTEs), utilizing Dörnyei’s L2 motivational self-system (L2MSS) theory. Employing a mixed-methods research approach, the study explored participants’ motivational profiles through questionnaires and voluntary interviews. The findings reveal high motivation levels among LOTE students, with ideal L2 self, L2 learning experience, instrumentality–promotion, international posture, and cultural/community interest as significant predictors. Notably, L2 learning experience emerged as the most influential predictor across all LOTE groups, offering a promising avenue for educational advancements. It advocates a dynamic teaching approach, fostering positive environments, emphasizing practical benefits, integrating cultural elements, and addressing online classroom challenges. Optimistic recommendations include ongoing teacher development, collaboration among educators, and parental involvement for a vibrant and motivating educational experience. The study’s upbeat tone suggests potential expansion through increased sample sizes and incorporating a diverse array of less commonly taught languages (LCTLs).

The Effectiveness of Intercultural Contact in Foreign Language Learning Anxiety of Students Majoring in Less-commonly Taught Languages in China

To figure out the confusion remained in the survey conducted previously, a review on the relationship between intercultural contact and foreign language learning anxiety had been done. Conclusion can be drawn like that qualitative study of what types of intercultural contact students have and how they view the role of contact situation influencing their foreign language learning anxiety is appropriately prior to the quantitative study of to what extent the language contact can affect students’ foreign language learning anxiety and how it affects. Furthermore, the design of research should be based on multidimensional perspectives like quantitative, qualitative and inter-group aspects of intercultural contact and direct type or indirect type of intercultural contact.

Towards a Blended Programme for Arabic and Other Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs) in the South African Higher Education Context

Disruptive technologies are widely used in education today. They aim to develop the knowledge, skills, and competencies of students. The field of applied linguistics, in general, and foreign language teaching, in particular, have benefited immensely from the developments taking place in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and mobile-assisted language learning (MALL). However, meaningful learning cannot be achieved by using technology indiscriminately; an understanding of educational theories and key instructional design models is urgently required. The present study argues that the adoption of established instructional design models will yield effective learning materials not only for the less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) but also for language classrooms in general. It investigates the use of ADDIE instructional design model for designing and developing a blended syllabus for teaching Arabic as a foreign language in South African institutions of higher learning. The study also deals with the attitudes of the students towards the designed blended syllabus. The proposed syllabus is based on a wide range of web-based tools and e-learning specifications such as Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) and Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). This study serves as a guideline for developing instructional materials for teaching Arabic, as well as other languages.

An overview of less commonly taught languages education in China: historical perspectives and practical concerns

The teaching of less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) in China started in late World War II and developed rapidly after the implementation of China’s reform and opening-up policy. In the 21st century, LCTLs education has entered a new stage. The Chinese government has promulgated a good number of policies to encourage the development of LCTLs professionals. In the meantime, the changing international landscape and the adjustment of the national development strategies have raised higher requirements and expectations for the construction of LCTLs majors. With an overview of the history of LCTLs undergraduate education, this paper focuses on the process of LCTLs undergraduate professionals development in China in the 21st century as well as summarizes the achievements and challenges of Chinese LCTLs education from the perspectives of disciplinary planning, curriculum development, teacher development, international training, and artificial intelligence.

The Art of Teaching Russian: Research, Pedagogy, and Practice ed. by Evgeny Dengub, Irina Dubinina and Jason Merrill (review)

Reviewed by: The Art of Teaching Russian: Research, Pedagogy, and Practice ed. by Evgeny Dengub, Irina Dubinina and Jason Merrill Maria Mikolchak Evgeny Dengub Irina Dubinina and Jason Merrill, editors. The Art of Teaching Russian: Research, Pedagogy, and Practice. Georgetown UP, 2020. 476 p. While building upon previous research, experience, and best practices of pedagogical methodologies and clearly demonstrating a continuum of approaches to teaching foreign languages, The Art of Teaching Russian: Research, Pedagogy, and Practice takes an important step forward in highlighting new developments. It positions teaching Russian language [End Page 223] and culture within the larger field of teaching Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) and foreign languages in general, specifically addressing the revised 21st century ACTFL proficiency guidelines and the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages that now include Russian, thus creating a new framework for guiding instruction. Not limited to Russian, it begins by addressing the state of the profession with chapters broadly analyzing the teaching of foreign languages that would interest any instructor. Following a broad introduction, including informative articles on faculty positions in Russian in American colleges and universities and Russian programs (unfortunately, not that many are left with the recent cuts in Humanities and in foreign language instruction in particular), the articles narrow down to the specifics of teaching Russian and address the new standards and innovative approaches. The volume's logical progression leads to topics that are more specific: curriculum and materials development; reconceptualization of grammar instruction; and the shift from Communicative Language Teaching, for years the gold standard, to transformative language learning and teaching. The curriculum and materials development section serves as a welcome invitation to encourage instructors to develop new Russian textbooks. It addresses the representation and diversity that clearly has been missing in Russian textbooks, since most are invariably limited to the white native speaker of Russian who lives in one of the big cities of Central Russia, to the exclusion of multiple other groups. The final two parts of the book focus on teaching culture and teaching and learning Russian with technology. Most of the articles explore general language-acquisition issues and interest a broad range of language specialists. They discuss language pedagogy and include familiar themes: teaching with songs (Chapter 11), developing textbooks (Chapter 12), using extracurricular activities (Chapter 17), film (Chapter 9), developing intercultural competence (Chapter 15), oral history projects (Chapter 10), and addressing diversity (Chapter 13), among others. Some concrete examples that have to do directly with Russian language include using proverbs (with great examples), songs, films, and history. To an extent, some of these pedagogies seem almost too familiar to any instructor of a foreign language, who most likely has used all of the above-mentioned approaches in their classes. It begs the question why this book would be [End Page 224] introduced by its editors as a new step in the development of research and best practices in teaching Russian and why a language instructor would find it worthy of their time. The answer to this question seems to be straightforward enough. In addition to familiar topics, the book raises many new issues: inadequate language proficiency of teaching assistants (TAs) (Chapter 4); use of Language Corpora (LC), a new field in Russian, with detailed examples and recommendations (Chapter 14); research on Russian programs in the US (Chapter 3), and data on faculty positions in Russian (Chapter 2), among many others. Even with the old and familiar topics of grammar, culture, etc., the authors incorporate new data and original research that, together with examples from the Russian language, would make the book an interesting and useful read for any Russian instructor. Teaching Russian has not been as well-documented and researched as teaching more frequently taught languages in the US, such as Spanish, French or German. A new book as well as new textbooks have been long overdue. The Art of Teaching Russian: Research, Pedagogy, and Practice will clearly be filling the existing gap and hopefully creating a bridge to more data and research in the field as well as a development of more innovative teaching materials, including textbooks for different levels of proficiency and online programs with new technologically mediated teaching methods. The...

Integrating Digital Technology in an Intensive, Fully Online College Course for Japanese Beginning Learners: A Standards‐Based, Performance‐Driven Approach

AbstractThe development of distance learning courses for less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) often meets with instructional challenges, especially for Asian LCTLs with their distinct non‐Roman characters and structures. This study documents the implementation of a fully online, elementary Japanese course at Stony Brook University. The curriculum was designed around the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages's (ACTFL) World‐Readiness Standards for Learning Languages; performance‐driven assessments; and task‐supported, technology‐enhanced principles. Asynchronous and synchronous tools were incorporated to facilitate task delivery and reduce the virtual isolation of learners. A simulated Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) was conducted for the online students in order to compare their oral performance with that of the face‐to‐face (F2F) cohort in the preceding semester. Quantitative results show that online students outperformed their F2F counterparts in most of the Integrated Performance Assessment's scoring criteria, with a statistically significant difference in the criterion “Communication strategies.” Survey results indicate students’ positive attitudes toward language gains and corroborate the qualitative results gleaned from student learning journals and survey responses: Students’ sense of isolation was replaced by a sense of co‐presence. We conclude that developing an online LCTL course, though challenging, is feasible and maximizes outcomes through the synergy of multimodal digital platforms, and a standards‐based, task‐driven curriculum design.

When the Test Developer Does Not Speak the Target Language: The Use of Language Informants in the Test Development Process

ABSTRACTIt is not unusual for tests in less-commonly taught languages (LCTLs) to be developed by an experienced item writer with no proficiency in the language being tested, in collaboration with a language informant who is a speaker of the target language, but lacks language assessment expertise. How this approach to item writing works in practice, and what factors play a role in it, is largely unrecorded, as are item-writing processes and practices in language assessment in general. Through a case study approach, this study sought to gain insights into test development practices in cases when essential item writer traits are spread across different people. Seven in-depth interviews with language assessment specialists and language informants involved in LCTL reading test development revealed a number of specific characteristics, and also challenges, to test developer recruitment and test development in this context. Findings indicate that this inherently collaborative approach brings with it a sophisticated system of “checks and balances” that may benefit item writing in some respects.

Online Learners of Macedonian with Self-instructed CALL

While much is known about the characteristics of adult learners and even adult learners in online and distance education settings, very little CALL research is focused on online self-instructed learners, and even fewer studies focus on learners of less commonly taught languages (LCTLs), for whom traditional or even distance education instruction may not be an option. Among this scarce research, there have been no studies that have described the characteristics of learners who opt to study LCTLs through self-instruction online. The present research begins to fill this void of information by investigating self-instructed learners using online resources for one LCTL, Macedonian. Findings regarding the age, educational background, experience with and level of comfort with learning languages online distinguish the group of Macedonian self-instructed online learners from other populations learning online. The primarily integrative reasons for studying Macedonian and the lack of other resources that force learners into choosing the online medium are also outlined. Knowing the characteristics of learners in self-instructed informal contexts, such as the one in the study, is necessary in order to be able to provide appropriate support and to design effective materials and resources to meet the needs of these and similar learners.

Usability testing the Afghan Language Aptitude Battery: Evaluating Cognitive Tests for Non-Traditional Populations

We present two closely-related approaches to product evaluation in less-commonly taught languages with native speaker informants and test participants. The Afghan Language Aptitude Battery (ALAB) was designed to be used to identify promising Afghan candidates for English language instruction before they started training in Afghanistan. In evaluating the battery, however, we were limited to testing in the United States. We asked Afghan service members who were already enrolled in language courses to act as usability participants and solicited their input on the design of the tests, the quality of the translations, and on the battery’s suitability for use in Afghanistan. Our testing found that the students were able to accomplish the tests, though the elements were unfamiliar, but that the instructions required extensive revisions in order to make them understandable to a less-educated audience in Afghanistan. The difference in the outcomes of our two evaluations suggests that translation evaluation should be done separately from test evaluation.

Languages for Specific Purposes Business Curriculum Creation and Implementation in the United States

After the United States emerged as the major world economic leader following World War II, language curricula for specific purposes in international business were put into practice at the college and university levels. This article documents the work of the major players in the development of coursework and materials for business languages for specific purposes (LSP) designed for instruction of the more commonly taught languages (CTLs) in the United States. The article also describes the more recent implementation of LSP curricula in the less commonly taught languages (LCTLs), such as Japanese and Chinese, and the various federal grants that aided in the development of instruction in these languages. The impact of the Centers for International Business Education and Research (CIBERs) and the positive effects of the Proficiency Guidelines (1986) and the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (2006), both developed and supported by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), provide a deeper explanation for the increased number of LCTLs currently being taught. Also described are the obstacles to continued implementation of these efforts and the need both for expansion of these efforts to precollege levels and for more theoretically‐based research in the field.

Adolescent Heritage Speakers of Less Commonly Taught Languages in the United States

AbstractResearch has demonstrated that heritage language maintenance can positively contribute to the academic and social lives of immigrant youth in the United States. This review examines the literature regarding adolescent heritage speakers of less commonly taught languages (LCTL). I focus on factors of ethnic identity and family relations and how they interact with language learning opportunities and outcomes for adolescent LCTL heritage learners. Heritage language development can lead to students’ stronger sense of ethnic identity which may serve as an important buffer from discrimination in schools and larger society. Heritage language development can also serve as a supportive mechanism for higher quality adult–child interactions and fewer acculturation‐related conflicts, particularly during adolescence.In short, researchers and educators must consider how heritage language learning opportunities matter for adolescent LCTL heritage speakers and all diverse students.

Dimension 2008: Languages for the Nation ed. by C. Maurice Cherry, Carol Wilkerson

CHERRY, C. MAURICE, and CAROL WILKERSON, eds. Dimension 2008: Languages for the Nation. Valdosta, GA: Southern Conference on Language Teaching, 2008. ISBN 1883640 -22-9. Pp. 126. $10. The use of a blind-review selection process and the careful work of the volume’s two editors have resulted in an excellent conference proceedings, which contains eight well-written and informative articles. The open-ended conference theme (Languages for the Nation) is carried through to the proceedings volume. In this reviewer’s opinion, the volume would have benefited from the cohesion provided by a topical organization (e.g., methods, assessment, and programmatic concerns). Three articles center on methods and strategies. In the first of these articles, “Drama in the Classroom and Improved Academic Performance,” David R. Miller makes a convincing case for the use of drama as a method for teaching Spanish. Students in three different settings (a typical state university, an HBCU, and a class at a men’s correctional facility) read and performed an unedited Nicaraguan play on health care issues written by a local theater group in Nicaragua ; they outperformed control groups who had not read the play on both achievement and motivation measures. In “An Analysis of the Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) Method,” David Alley and Denise Overfield provide both an historical overview and an insightful critique of TPRS (the latest iteration of TPR). Their reservations about TPRS include issues such as its use of inauthentic language through teacher-created stories, its insistence on BEP (bizarre, exaggerated, and personalized), and the lack of cultural authenticity in the materials. They conclude that TPRS has more in common with earlier methods such as ALM or Grammar-Translation than with newer, more communicative approaches to language learning. Readers tuned into the learning styles and preferences of the millennial generation will profit from the innovative blend of technology and creative writing that Edwina Spodark describes in her article, “Technoconstructivism and the Millennial Generation: Creative Writing in the Foreign Language Classroom.” Two articles deal primarily with assessment. The first, “Technology for Oral Assessment” (Patricia Early and Peter B. Swanson) compares the use of in-class oral assessments and those provided by today’s technology (e.g., Audacity, Odeo, and iPods). Based on their critiques of the two approaches and a comparison of in-class oral testing and out-of-class testing using digital voice recorders, the authors make a strong case for using technology as a vehicle for out-of-class oral assessment. In her article, “Connecting a Standards-Based Curriculum with Student Performance and Assessment,” Rosalie Cheatham describes a beginning-to-advanced level university curriculum based on the three modes of the Communication Standard (interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational) where classroom activities and assessments reflect tasks that students would be likely to encounter in the real world. Programmatic issues are dealt with in the remaining three articles. Marat Sanatullova advocates using the Teacher Work Sample (TWS) as a basis for constructing unit lesson plans in pre-service teacher education programs. Sanatullova demonstrates that the TWS in combination with a WebQuest (an inquiry-based on-line activity in which students seek out information) provides a useful structure for pre-service teachers. For readers not familiar with the issues involved with the less commonly taught languages (LCTLs), Elvira SanatullovaAllison ’s article (“The National Security Language Initiative and Less Commonly 828 FRENCH REVIEW 84.4 Taught Languages”) provides an excellent overview of that field including the categories of LCTLs, the rationale behind LCTL offerings at universities, and enrollment data (check the University of Minnesota’s LCTL database and 2007 MLA enrollment data for up-to-date information). Lisa Signori’s “The Belgian Connection” addresses the importance of including Belgium in French programs and provides useful information about the country. All in all, Languages for the Nation provides a useful contribution to the profession, and readers taking the time to peruse its pages will find much to recommend it. Ohio State University Diane W. Birckbichler ROCHAT, DENISE. Contrastes: grammaire du français courant. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009. ISBN 0-205-64699-0. Pp. 504. $52.00. Contrastes is a grammar textbook for students with a solid foundation in French, ready...

Less commonly taught languages in the TELL framework: the case of Modern Greek

It is true that not all languages start from an even situation: some languages (which are considered 'privileged', 'strong' or 'widely spoken/used/taught') happen to have large numbers of speakers, others have few. In order to preserve, promote and spread less commonly taught languages (LCTL) it is important to avail of all potential promotion and dissemination mechanisms, one of which is TELL (technology-enhanced language learning). In this paper we shall first discuss LCTL in the TELL context and we shall then present a TELL application for Modern Greek, which aspires to contribute to the 'revitalisation' and dissemination of a small language via the technology channel.

Preparing and Supporting Teachers of Less Commonly Taught Languages

The article discusses the support that is given to teachers of less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) in the U.S. The teachers of such languages are, the article alleges, improperly trained and teacher development opportunities are lacking. The U.S. National Security Language Initiative (NSLI) established the need for instruction in languages such as Chinese, Arabic, and Russian. The educational attainment of language teachers in the U.S., many of whom are native speakers who immigrated to the U.S., is discussed. The system used for certifying LCTL teachers is explained and is sometimes an obstacle for some to enter the teaching profession so alternative paths to certification are sometimes used.

New Alignments, New Discourses

The report of the MLA Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages touches on a number of issues in foreign language teaching today from several per spectives: logistical, paradigmatic, curricular, and administrative. In that report, committee members were at pains not to single out any language in particular, even though the situations for Spanish and for less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) differ greatly. Evidently, the report has reso nated with language professionals across the country, because it touches on knotty, core issues that every foreign language department faces but that are rarely discussed outside departmental boundaries. By convening this committee, the Modern Language Association took a key step in approaching three substantive ideological divides: between language and literature, between traditional academic curricula and gov ernment programs, and between the worlds of teaching and research. Each of these divides has its own history, its own advocates, its own critics, and its own inertia, heavily weighted down by the legacy of past practice and discipline-fed mythology. The ad hoc committee's report and its recommendations show a shift of attention and intent on the part of the MLA leadership to reexamine goals and curricula, to assess the impact and implications of global security issues on language and culture teaching, and to realign itself with other professional and advocacy groups for an agenda that is both short-term and long-term, academic and public. The report aims to stimulate experi mentation with new curricular models that go beyond national security

Achieving the Advanced Oral Proficiency in Arabic: A Case Study

Abstract: This article is based on a case study of a white American graduate student, Mark, who achieved “Superior” oral proficiency in Arabic according to the ACTFIi Oral Proficiency Scale. Based on multiple data sources (e.g., interviews, observation, document analysis), the study highlights Mark's multiple identities as a language learner, language instructor, and as a (non)member of a target language community. It is hoped that the study will inspire and inform language learners and educators of LOTEs (languages other than English), particularly, of LCTLs (less commonly taught languages), such as Arabic.

Back to the Drawing Board? Articulation and Outreach Revisited

It's a puzzle how the pieces fit together?articu lation, momentum, and outreach?though no mystery that they have strategic importance for German programs today. The modest enrollment gains reported by the MLA (MLA Survey; Welles) have not diminished our challenges, rang ing from financial exigencies to public perceptions that our field is marginal (Dasenbrock 63). Against the background of calls to action prompted by the No Child Left Behind Act (cf. Rosenbusch), my ob servations reflect on how German departments at postsecondary institutions envision K-16 articula tion, gauge momentum, and create outreach, es pecially through public websites. Under optimal conditions, these efforts should express the robust interconnection of teaching, research, and service. Often instead they foreground disjunctives in the architecture of our profession at large (Rosenbusch 258). Outreach in my own department has already undergone a rapid evolution that would have been difficult to imagine a decade ago, an upgrade that is by no means complete. Our work suggests that three approaches are helpful in improving the out reach profile: dialogues with our audiences, tar geted outreach events, and informational publica tions. When Mary Louise Pratt argued from her posi tion as MLA President that we need language pipe lines at every level, she focused on building con nections. Suggesting that With relatively little new infrastructure, American high schools can become the pipeline to advanced language study linked to cultural, scholarly, and professional expertise (Pratt 117), she convincingly recommended a powerful collaboration between colleges and uni versities and secondary school teachers. Ideally, this network would provide opportunities and ac cess in the form of scholarships, enrichment pro grams, summer intensive courses, study abroad, or work in the so-called Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs) (118). Because Pratt's optimism about the future of foreign languages in the U.S. seems to many col leagues to speak more to the growth of Spanish than to conditions for German, the pragmatic rela tionship between the language system and our field bears further scrutiny. Infrastructure questions have, of course, received extensive attention in German. Beyond the pride that we take in the indi vidual energy that builds and maintains our pro grams, significant effort has been devoted to identi fying articulation obstacles that have hamstrung college and university German programs. Analysis of curricular disconnects at the stage when high school students enter the postsecondary system has produced constructive recommenda tions from the AATG, Byrnes, Chavez, and others (Chavez; Andress et al.; Byrnes Future). Improved integration of students into collegiate studies has also been facilitated through the creation of stan dards for K-16 education, including the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, the Standards for Foreign Language Learning, and other disciplinary recom mendations (see Appendix). As aspirational docu ments, these standards commendably voice broad professional consensus about student achieve ment. Moreover, they have generated consultative expertise, dissemination activity, and professional renewal for teachers. This strategic activity has been especially con structive in shaping systems where large-scale edu cational ecologies prevail. To cite one example, German departments at large Midwestern univer sities have generally enjoyed solid enrollments that correlate with the debut of the Proficiency Guide lines and subsequent attention to promoting verti

Through the Learners' Eyes: Reconceptualizing the Heritage and Non-Heritage Learner of the Less Commonly Taught Languages

Abstract: This study investigates how learners of the less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) (i.e., Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Swahili, Yoruba) perceive their identities as heritage or non-heritage language learners. A survey of 530 college-level language learners reveals that heritage and non-heritage learner identities are constructed in relationship to others and are perceived to be multifaceted and fluid. The data empirically validate the complexity of learner characteristics involved in the identification process of heritage and non-heritage learners and suggest that these two categories may not be mutually exclusive. This article proposes a reconceptualized framework representing the various profiles of learners of the LCTLs including those learners who see themselves as having characteristics of both a heritage and non-heritage learner.

DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL-LEVEL LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL-LEVEL LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY. Betty Lou Leaver and Boris Shekhtman (Eds.) . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xiv + 308. $65.00 cloth, $24.00 paper. In the face of a vast array of non-English culture and language media, increases in diaspora populations in the United States and elsewhere, the importance of global circuits of capital (and hence global communicative practices), and the increasing penetration of world events into the lives of Americans (with its implications for national security), one would surmise that developing professional-level additional language expertise would not be the exception that it is in the United States. Lambert ( 2001 ) described the low percentage of American students who study a foreign language at the advanced level and estimated that only 3% of those studying commonly taught languages such as Spanish or French enroll in advanced-level courses. Although support for less commonly taught languages (LCTL) such as Arabic have recently increased, students enrolled in LCTL programs are presumably even fewer in number. It is also clear that advanced-level coursework occupies only a fraction of most language programs' overall investment of resources. In a fiscal climate that makes the academy increasingly accountable to private sector logic, few interested students make developing advanced language programs a nonutilitarian choice.

Successful College and University Foreign Language Programs, 1995–99: Part 2

THE MLA’s Office of Foreign Language Programs has undertaken a project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to discover what factors make foreign language programs successful. The field is increasingly aware of evolving conditions affecting foreign language programs in colleges and universities in this country. For one thing, enrollment patterns are changing. Before the project was undertaken, the MLA’s 1995 and 1998 enrollment surveys showed that while the number of students studying languages remained relatively stable, Spanish enrollments represented more than half the total, and student interest had declined in three traditionally taught languages—French, German, and Russian. Enrollment in less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) was increasing slightly, and of those students not taking Spanish a greater number were studying a greater number of languages (Brod and Welles 23 and 28; table 1). The most recent enrollment survey for fall 2002 shows a marked change: registrations are up in all the fifteen most commonly taught languages. Increases are particularly notable for American Sign Language, Arabic, and Italian. The downward trends for German, French, and Russian have stabilized or shown signs of reversal. The number of LCTLs offered and the number of students studying them increased substantially as well (Welles, tables 1a and 1b). The national context of foreign language and literature programs presents complex challenges. Most parents are eager for their children to study a second language in elementary and secondary schools. Yet the public perception that learning a language other than English is irrelevant and the idea that widespread knowledge of English around the world makes it unnecessary to know the primary language of someone whose second or third is English discourage heritage language speakers from maintaining their home languages and English speakers from learning new ones. Furthermore, the teaching of languages has changed dramatically in the last several decades. The technological revolution allows access to languages and cultures in completely new ways; today’s students, skilled in the uses of computers and the Internet, expect to take advantage of these tools in the classroom. Student populations, more diverse in age, ethnicity, and preparation for college, are increasingly career-minded and concerned that their language study be useful to them. The traditional rationale that learning a language deepens understanding of the world through the study of the linguistic, literary, and cultural artifacts of another people has been supplemented by the idea that language knowledge will be practical and enhance professional situations in later life. In the face of these changes and challenges, we wanted to find out how departments are managing and what conditions favor departmental success. Our fall 1999 survey collected information about the